The  Heart  of  a  Holy  Woman 

By  TIMOTHY  BROSNAHAN,  S.J. 


THE  AMERICA  PRESS 
New  York,  N.  Y. 


"THE  HEART  of  a 
HOLY  WOMAN" 


Timothy  ^rosnahan,  SJ. 


THE  AMERICA  PRESS 
New  York,  N.  Y. 


Nihil  Obstat: 


Arthur  J.  Scanlan,  S.T.D., 
Censor  Librorum. 


Imprimatur: 


Imprpni  Potest: 


New  York,  March  28,  1927. 


*h  Patrick  Cardinal  Hayes, 
Archie  pis  co  pus  Neo-Eb. 

Lawrence  J.  Kelly,  S.J., 
Prcep.  Prov.  Marylandice -Neo-Eb. 

Copyright,  1927. 


0- 


ce  The  Heart  of  a  Holy  Woman 


WE  read  in  Ecclesiasticus,  chapter  twenty-six,  verse 
twenty-four:  "As  everlasting  foundations  upon  a 
solid  rock,  so  the  commandments  of  God  in  the  heart  of 
a  holy  woman." 

To  many  these  words  of  Holy  Scripture  may  seem  to 
have  been  written  in  a  spirit  of  exaggeration.  The  in- 
stability of  woman's  heart  has  become  a  commonplace  of 
literature.  Wit  and  wisdom  have  pooled  their  issues  in 
an  effort  to  make  it  a  truism,  which  all  who  study  man- 
kind must  respect.  Essayists  in  many  a  well-built  period 
have  made  the  assertion  of  it  gems  of  literature.  To  it 
historians  have  traced  the  downfall  of  statesmen  and  of 
kingdoms.  Philosophers  from  calm  heights  have  at- 
tempted to  analyze  it.  Moralists  have  earnestly  warned 
us  against  it.  The  ephemeral  and  hebdomadal  newspaper 
humorists  have  found  it  inexhaustible  grist  for  their 
mills  and  many  a  poet,  whose  eyes  were,  for  one  reason 
or  another,  rolling  in  find  phrensy,  has  made  it  the  theme 
of  his  song.  The  instability  of  woman's  heart  is  the 
motive  of  many  a  drama,  the  moral  of  many  a  tale,  the 
point  of  many  a  joke.  It  has  become  a  proverb,  a  par- 
able, and  a  pleasantry.  That  the  heart  of  any  woman, 
therefore,  holy  or  otherwise,  should  be  likened  to  the 
solid  rock  of  an  everlasting  foundation  seems  gross  flat- 
tery on  the  part  of  the  son  of  Sirach. 

Nor  can  it  be  denied  that  he  gave  utterance  to  a 
3 


4  "The  Heart  of  a  Holy  Wotnan" 

strong  assertion.  I  doubt  if  stronger  may  be  found  in 
Holy  Writ.  We  are  told  that  nothing  is  so  stable,  so 
firm  and  so  immoveable  in  righteousness  as  that  which 
is  usually  taken  as  a  type  of  instability.  Theology 
teaches  us  that,  outside  of  some  exceptional  cases,  only 
those  who  enjoy  the  Beatific  Vision,  and  those  who 
await  in  purgation  their  predestined  admission  to  it,  are 
so  confirmed  in  grace  that  they  cannot  fail.  As  long  as 
we  are  wayfarers  in  this  probationary  world  of  faith,  we 
must  pick  our  steps  along  the  pathway  of  life  with  the 
ever  present  conviction  that  we  may  stumble  and  fall. 
Yet  inspired  Wisdom  tells  us  that  the  heart  of  a  holy 
woman  is  as  enduring  a  support  for  the  commandments 
of  God  as  is  a  solid  rock  for  everlasting  foundations. 

The  text  which  I  have  cited  attributes  therefore  to 
woman  an  aptitude  for  righteousness  that  is  truly  ex- 
ceptional. On  its  truth  depends,  I  think,  the  solution  of 
some  practical  question  of  the  highest  moment.  Is  it 
true  then  that  woman  may  possess  the  extraordinary 
stability  in  righteousness  that  will  make  her  heart  the 
impregnable  stronghold  of  God's  commandments?  If 
it  is,  her  power  for  good  or  for  evil  is  almost  immeas- 
urable. This  is  the  question  I  wish  to  submit  to  your 
consideration  this  evening. 

The  Sphinx 

There  is  a  Greek  legend  of  a  fabled  being,  half- 
woman  and  half-lion,  called  the  Sphinx,  who  dwelt  be- 
side a  profound  abyss  and  had  as  her  only  visible  means 
of  support  a  riddle  concerning  man.  This  she  proposed 
to  all  who  came  into  her  presence  and  then  devoured 
those  who  failed  to  answer  it.    As  the  number  of  those 


"The  Heart  of  a  Holy  Woman"  5 

who  are  confident  that  they  can  solve  any  problem  and 
are  eager  and  anxious  to  attack  the  most  momentous  is 
always  large  and  immeasurably  in  excess  of  those  who 
are  capable  of  solving  any,  this  leonine  maiden  is  said 
to  have  been  for  unnumbered  years  in  no  want  of  food. 
At  last  however,  when  the  riddle  was  solved,  she  threw 
herself  into  the  abyss  and  was  destroyed.  A  German 
poet  with  some  glimmering  of  wisdom  has  said  that 
every  age  has  its  sphinx  which  plunges  into  the  abyss 
as  soon  as  its  problem  is  solved;  and  it  is  undoubtedly 
true  that  in  every  epoch  of  history  mankind  is  confronted 
with  a  problem  affecting  its  well-being,  and  on  the  right 
solution  of  which  depend  the  future  advance  and  welfare 
of  the  race.  This  problem  on  the  surface  differs  for  dif- 
ferent ages;  the  social  problems  of  today  are  not  the 
problems  of  the  fifteenth,  the  tenth,  the  fifth  or  the  first 
century  of  the  Christian  era.  But  this  difference  is  more 
apparent  than  real.  In  their  last  analysis  the  social 
questions  of  every  age,  whether  they  concern  liberty, 
wages,  education  or  morality  are  one.  Our  ancestors  had 
their  riddles  to  solve,  and  our  descendants  shall  have 
theirs,  as  we  have  ours ;  but  ours  differ  from  those  of 
the  past  and  the  future  only  in  some  accidents.  At 
bottom  the  problems  of  the  Sphinx  of  time  resolve  them- 
selves into  the  general  one  of  so  .  regulating  and  con- 
trolling human  conduct,  of  so  adjusting  and  harmonizing 
the  mutual  relations  of  man  with  man  that  justice  and 
equity,  peace  and  friendship  may  prevail,  that  each  and 
all  may  enjoy  the  largest  and  most  far-reaching  happi- 
ness compatible  with  the  limitations  of  our  present  exist- 
ence and  the  fairest  field  for  endeavor  and  enterprise. 
That  men  may  enjoy  liberty  without  allowing  it  to  de- 


6 


The  Heart  of  a  Holy  Woman' 


generate  into  license;  that  governments  may  exercise 
authority  without  attempting  the  tyranny  of  paternal- 
ism ;  that  the  basis  and  foundation  stone  of  society,  the 
homes  of  a  virtuous  people,  may  be  secure  in  the  sunlight 
of  peace  and  contented  in  an  atmosphere  of  prosperity; 
that  mutual  reverence,  charity  and  tolerance  may  prevail 
universally — this  is  the  goal  mankind  has  been  attempt- 
ing to  attain  in  every  age,  this  the  aim  of  the  statesman's 
philosophy  and  endeavor,  this  the  problem  of  the  sphinx 
of  time. 

Now  there  is  one  and  only  one  solution  for  the  ques- 
tion proposed  by  the  sphinx  of  this  or  any  other  epoch. 
It  was  first  proposed  about  five  thousand  years  ago  on 
the  summit  of  Mount  Sinai ;  and  since  the  Son  of  Sirach 
was  not  indulging  in  oriental  flattery  the  heart  of  a 
woman  is  the  most  effective  instrument  for  working  out 
that  solution. 

Other  solutions  have  been  proposed  in  our  times, 
through  which  we  are  promised  panaceas  for  all  the  ills 
that  afflict  society.  Prominent  among  these  are  dismal 
philosophies,  raw  and  indigested  legislation,  and  what 
is  commonly  known  today  as  education. 

Dismal  Philosophy 

Among  these  dismal  philosophies  there  is  one  which 
is  the  parent  of  all  the  others  and  through  its  offspring 
has  infested  almost  every  department  of  human  thought ; 
a  philosophy,  which  owes  its  origin  to  Darwin,  who  as 
Ruskin  tells  us  "has  a  mortal  fascination  for  all  vainly 
curious  and  idly  speculative  persons,  and  has  collected 
in  the  train  of  him  every  impudent  imbecility  of  Europe, 
like  a  dim  comet  wagging  its  \ useless  tail  of  phosphor- 


"The  Heart  of  a  Holy  Woman"  7 

escent  nothingness  across  the  steadfast  stars" ;  a  phi- 
losophy which  in  its  ultimate  analysis  destroys  all  mo- 
rality, all  nobility  of  life,  and  all  refinement  of  social  in- 
tercourse, which  declares  God  an  obscure  and  nebulous 
background  behind  the  world  of  phenomena,  and  makes 
man  the  brother  of  the  ass,  the  ape  and  the  tiger. 

But  the  sphinx  of  time  will  not  accept  as  a  solution 
of  its  problem  a  philosophy  which  makes  God  more  un- 
known than  an  algebraic  symbol,  which  degrades  righte- 
ousness to  the  level  of  expediency  and  utility,  which  de- 
clares man  to  be  an  irresponsible  and  selfish  automaton, 
and  his  life  a  gross,  heartless  and  egotistic  struggle  for 
existence.  It  has  always  insisted  on  having  a  solution 
in  keeping  with  the  facts  of  man's  nature  and  destiny. 

Undigested  Legislation 

In  our  democratic  age  a  mighty  efficiency  is  attrib- 
uted by  some  to  legislation.  The  number  of  sincere 
men  and  women  who  believe  that  injustice  and  vice  may 
be  legislated  out  of  existence  is  a  striking  proof  that 
goodness  and  common  sense  are  not  correlative  terms. 
If  they  succeed  in  getting  our  lawgivers  to  enact  pro- 
hibitions and  to  assign  sanctions  for  violations,  they 
glow  with  the  enthusiasm  of  an  apostle  who  has  con- 
verted a  nation.  They  forget  that  the  statute  books  are 
filled  with  laws  and  ordinances ;  that  laws  are  worth- 
less for  personal  morality  unless  broad-based  on  a  peo- 
ple's will.  Legislative  enactments  have  the  vitality  of  laws 
properly  so  called,  when  they  are  the  expression  of  a 
people's  moral  standards.  A  simple  experiment  in  hydro- 
statics shows  that  water  in  two  communicating  vessels 
will  not  rise  higher  in  one  than  in  another.  The  reservoir 


8  "The  Heart  of  a  Holy  Woman 


of  national  and  municipal  morality  must  increase  in 
depth  before  we  may  hope  for  an  increase  in  height 
in  the  fountains  of  justice.  Laws  therefore,  necessary 
though  they  be,  derive  their  moral  efficiency  from  the 
interior  law  that  rules  the  heart. 

The  Education  Nostrum 

Education  is  another  of  our  nostrums.  A  notion 
prevailed  in  medieval  times  that  knowledge  of  the  forces 
of  nature  necessarily  implied  intercourse  with  the  powers 
of  darkness.  It  seems  to  us  who  have  pried  so  success- 
fully into  the  material  secrets  of  nature  without  any  aid 
from  his  satanic  majesty  that  this  notion  is  ludicrous. 
But  we  moderns  have  a  superstitious  notion  of  our  own ; 
we  fancy  that  education  has  in  itself  something  Divine. 
A  very  ancient  woman  had  the  same  conviction  when  she 
purchased  the  knowledge  of  good  and  evil  by  the  loss 
of  Eden.  Some  new  women  and  old  men  are  untiring  in 
their  efforts  to  propagate  the  belief  that  increased  de- 
velopment of  the  intellectual  powers  together  with  in- 
creased knowledge  is  going  to  cure  the  ills  of  society,  to 
restrain  the  passions  of  men,  to  make  the  lion  lie  down 
with  the  lamb  and  perhaps  even  make  the  "bulls"  and 
the  "bears"  clasp  one  another  in  a  loving  financial  em- 
brace. We  have  engrossed  this  superstition  of  ours  in 
letters  of  gold  beneath  the  vaulted  vestibule  of  our  im- 
posing national  library.  We  have  somehow  reached  the 
conviction  that  because  education  is  a  powerful  and 
necessary  ally  it  is  the  leader  that  directs  and  inspires 
the  forces  of  social  order  and  morality;  that  because  it 
is  an  embellishment  and  a  strength  to  our  social  and  in- 
dividual lives  it  is  the  force  that  gives  vitality. 


The  Heart  of  a  Holy  Woman" 


9 


Who  loves  not  knowledge?  Who  shall  rail 
Against  her  beauty?  May  she  mix 
With  men  and  prosper.    Who  shall  fix 

Her  pillars?  Let  her  work  prevail. 

But  Tennyson  continues : 

What  is  she  cut  from  love  and  faith 

But  some  wild  Pallas  from  the  brain 

Of  Demons?  Fiery  hot  to  burst 
All  barriers  in  her  onward  race 
For  power.    Let  her  know  her  place. 

She  is  second  not  the  first ; 

A  higher  hand  must  make  her  mild 
If  all  be  not  in  vain ;  and  guide 
Her  footsteps,  moving  side  by  side 

With  Wisdom,  like  the  younger  child. 

The  thing  we  denominate  education  today  has  freed 
itself  from  the  control  of  that  higher  hand.  Religion, 
the  fostering  mother  of  morality,  reverence,  purity,  self- 
control  and  those  other  virtues  that  make  childhood  and 
youth  lovable  and  radiant  of  promise  for  future  woman- 
hood and  manhood,  has  since  the  unhallowed  days  of 
Horace  Mann  been  banished  from  our  public  schools. 
This  solemn  folly  of  maintaining  that  morality  is  to  be 
advanced,  society  is  to  be  renovated,  the  state  is  to  be 
supplied  with  good  citizens  by  schools  over  the  portals 
of  which  is  written  the  legend — Leave  religion  behind  all 
ye  who  enter  here — may  compete  as  a  superstition  very 
successfully  with  any  exploded  nonsense  of  the  Middle 
Ages. 


10 


The  Heart  of  a  Holy  Woman 


The  Real  Safeguard 

But,  there  is  another  power  for  the  safety  or  renova- 
tion of  society,  which,  because  it  can  win  men's  hearts 
by  its  beauty  and  rule  men's  minds  by  its  truth,  can 
mould  and  fashion  conduct;  which,  because  it  can  pre- 
sent the  highest  rewards  and  the  noblest  ideals,  can 
restrain  and  soften  his  passions  for  low  rewards  and 
ignoble  ideals ;  which,  because  it  alone  can  give  with 
authority  standards  of  conduct  that  appeal  to  the  best 
that  is  in  man  and  to  the  whole  man,  because  it  alone 
can  give  any  satisfactory  solution  of  the  problem  of  his 
present  existence,  the  riddle  of  the  Sphinx  of  time,  will 
supply  the  interior  law  that  will  give  justice  and  efficacy 
to  legislation,  and  the  higher  hand  that  prevents  knowl- 
edge from  becoming  a  wild  Pallas  from  the  brain  of 
Demons. 

Morality  and  religion  are  the  safeguard  of  society. 
Not  the  godless  schoolhouse  but  the  home  over  which 
a  Christian  mother  presides  is  the  seminary  of  good 
citizens;  not  the  halls  of  legislation,  but  the  temple  of 
the  living  God  is  the  source  of  effective  law.  It  is  not 
by  dismal  philosophies,  that  men  are  to  be  ennobled,  and 
society  to  be  elevated,  nor  by  legislation,  nor  by  secular- 
ized education;  but  by  the  observance  of  the  Ten  Com- 
mandments, and  the  loving  and  faithful  inculcation  of 
them  by  her  who  lives  them  and  to  whom  the  God  of 
nature  and  Christianity  has  committed  the  formation  of 
our  first  moral  judgments. 

If  therefore  an  age,  in  which  the  full  and  unqualified 
observance  of  God's  commandments  is  regarded  as  an 
iridescent  dream,  will  ever  be  looked  back  upon  as  the 


"The  Heart  of  a  Holy  Woman"  11 

nightmare  of  a  materialized  century ;  then  to  her,  whose 
heart  is  capable  of  becoming  an  everlasting  foundation 
for  the  commandments  of  God,  is  attributed  a  power  we 
cannot  exaggerate.  If  the  poet's  dream  of  the  reign  of 
righteousness  and  justice,  when  "all  men's  good  shall 
be  each  mail's  rule,  and  universal  peace  lies  like  a  shaft 
of  light  across  the  land  and  like  a  lane  of  beams  athwart 
the  sea,  through  all  the  circles  of  the  golden  year"  is 
ever  to  be  realized,  then  on  her  who  can  hasten  that  day 
is  imposed  a  duty  which  becomes  startling  in  the  re- 
sponsibility it  implies. 

It  may  seem  that  I  have  wandered  somewhat  afield 
from  my  subject.  But  my  wandering  has  had  a  purpose. 
If  by  this  preamble  I  have  succeeded  in  presenting  the 
problem  and  making  it  of  interest,  I  shall  make  no 
apology  for  its  length,  but  proceed  to  investigate  the 
truth  of  my  text  :  "As  everlasting  foundations  upon  a 
solid  rock,  so  the  commandments  of  God  in  the  heart  of 
a  holy  woman." 

The  Mystery  in  Genesis 

Before  doing  so,  I  ask  you  to  notice  the  curious  mys- 
tery that  is  hidden  in  the  narrative  of  Genesis  describing 
the  creation  of  our  first  parents  Two  points  in  that 
narrative  cast  a  side-light  on  our  subject  that  is  strange, 
coming  as  it  does  in  the  oldest  historical  record  and  in  the 
first  pages  of  revelation.  Notice  in  the  first  place  the  con- 
trast between  the  creation  of  man  and  woman.  We  are  told 
that  the  "Lord  God  formed  man  out  of  the  slime  of  the 
earth,  and  breathed  into  his  face  the  breath  of  life  and 
man  became  a  living  sour' ;  but  woman  He  formed  not 
from  the  slime  of  the  earth,  but  from  the  body  of  man 


12  "The  Heart  of  a  Holy  Woman" 

after  it  had  been  elevated  to  the  supernatural  state.  He 
is  formed  out  of  the  slime  of  the  earth,  she  from  the 
bone  of  his  supernaturalized  body.  Notice  in  the  second 
place  God's  purpose  in  the  creation  of  woman :  she  was 
to  be  man's  helpmate.  Not,  be  it  understood,  in  a  tempo- 
ral and  material  sense  only;  but  for  attaining  the  pur- 
pose of  his  creation.  She  must  be  his  councillor  and 
comforter;  she  must  encourage  him  when  he  is  weak, 
reanimate  him  when  he  falls ;  she  must  be  his  better 
self,  his  inspiration,  and  his  ideal. 

Woman  in  Paganism 

If  we  turn  now  to  history  for  a  realization  of  the 
magnificent  prophecy  implied  in  the  primal  structure  and 
mission  of  woman,  we  are  confronted  with  a  record, 
some  pages  of  which  are  gloriously  illumined  with 
achievements  of  duty  and  heroism,  and  some  are  bla- 
zoned with  deeds  of  humiliation,  degradation  and  infamy. 

The  condition  of  woman  throughout  paganism  is  one 
of  dishonor.  Her  influence  is  for  evil.  In  the  home — 
if  home,  in  our  sense  of  the  word,  it  may  be  called — she 
exercised  little  of  that  tender  control  over  the  formation 
of  the  character  of  her  boys,  which  we  associate  with 
the  functions  of  a  mother.  She  was  usually  excluded 
from  the  public  life  of  society.  She  was  degraded  by 
polygamy  and  divorce,  and  reduced  to  the  position  of 
being  little  less  than  the  chattel  and  the  slave  of  man. 
Frederic  Ozanam  says : 

When  she  sought  to  free  herself  from  the 
pressure  of  this  harsh  destiny;  when  by  the  pub- 
licity of  her  charms  or  the  brilliancy  of  her  men- 
tal gifts,  she  endeavored  in  her  turn  to  subjugate 


The  Heart  of  a  Holy  Woman 


13 


warriors,  statesmen,  philosophers  and  artists,  she 
only  succeeded  in  making  them  sharers  in  her 
degradation.  When  she  had  become  the  mis- 
tress, she  found  in  this  name  only  another 
species  of  shame. 

Why  dwell  on  the  unsavory  story !  Woman,  whose 
creation  was  so  exceptionally  glorious  in  the  promise  of 
good,  was  in  Paganism  an  universal  source  of  evil. 

If  we  remember  that  it  is  a  woman  who  brings  us 
into  the  world,  whose  moods,  and  temperaments  and 
thoughts  may  help  to  the  formation  of  character  even 
in  the  days  of  our  prenatal  existence ;  that  it  is  a  woman 
who  is  our  first  teacher,  in  whose  care  and  power  we 
are  during  the  most  plastic  years  of  our  life;  if  we  re- 
member that  unlike  other  teachers  she  has  the  unbounded 
love  and  reverence  of  her  pupil,  that  she  is  looked  up  to 
as  a  divinity  by  the  loyal  young  hearts  and  heads  which 
she  is  forming;  that  in  all  the  wide  range  of  human  in- 
fluence there  is  no  opportunity  like  hers — bearing  all 
this  in  mind  and  much  else  that  might  be  added,  we 
shall  not  be  surprised  at  the  inference  of  a  celebrated 
modern  writer.  "Woman,"  he  says,  "makes  the  world 
what  it  is  from  century  to  century. "  Therefore  woman 
made  Paganism.  The  corruption  of  that  ancient  world 
began  at  the  domestic  hearth. 

Now  at  first  sight,  it  may  seem  that  what  I  have 
said  regarding  woman's  part  in  the  degradation  of  hu- 
manity under  paganism  is  an  argument  against  the  truth 
enunciated  in  the  book  of  Ecclesiasticus.  If  the  de- 
basement of  ancient  civilization  is  largely  attributable  to 
woman,  one  might  conclude  that  woman  is  not  capable 
of  such  power  and  influence  as  Holy  Writ  concedes  her. 


14  "The  Heart  of  a  Holy  Woman" 

Nevertheless  the  inference  would  not  be  just.  Great 
powers  for  good  connote  great  powers  for  evil ;  and  reci- 
procally those,  who  have  swayed  men  by  the  evil  of 
their  lives,  might,  had  they  directed  their  energies  into 
nobler  channels,  have  hastened  on  the  golden  year.  The 
great  minds  and  wills  that  have  been  the  bane  of  hu- 
manity, might  have  been  its  benefactors  and  saviors.  On 
the  other  hand  it  has  been  said  that  if  St.  Ignatius  of 
Loyola  and  St.  Francis  Xavier  had  not  become  great 
saints,  they  might  have  become  heresiarchs  before  whom 
Luther  and  Calvin  would  have  paled.  If  the  Lord  had 
not  grasped  Saul  of  Tarsus  by  the  heartstrings  and 
dragged  him  into  the  Church,  Saul  would,  humanly 
speaking,  have  strangled  the  Church  in  its  infancy.  If 
Judas  had  not  fallen  he  would  have  left  a  name  as  sym- 
bolic of  heroic  sanctity  as  it  now  is  of  unutterable  in- 
famy. St.  Theresa  herself  has  acknowledged  that  if  she 
had  not  been  a  fervent  religious  she  would  have  been  a 
reprobate.  There  is  an  old  scholastic  axiom:  corruptio 
optimi  est  pessima — -"the  corruption  of  what  is  best  re- 
sults in  what  is  most  evil."  The  depths  therefore  to 
which  woman  fell  during  Paganism,  shows  the  heights 
she  might  have  attained.  The  influence  she  exerted  for 
the  degradation  of  mankind,  shows  the  influence  she 
might  have  exerted  for  its  elevation. 

Old  Testament  Women 

Let  us  turn  now  to  the  brighter  pages  of  history 
pages  suffused  with  the  light  of  revelation.  There  we 
shall  find  women  who  satisfy  the  requirements  of  the 
mother  of  King  Lamuel  (Proverbs  xxxi.  10-31). 


"The  Heart  of  a  Holy  Woman 


15 


Who  shall  find  a  valiant  woman?  Far  and 
from  the  uttermost  coasts  is  the  price  of  her. 
The  heart  of  her  husband  trusteth  in  her.  .  .  . 
She  will  render  him  good,  and  not  evil,  all  the 
days  of  her  life.  .  .  .  She  hath  opened  her  hand 
to  the  needy,  and  stretched  out  her  hands  to  the 
poor.  .  .  .  Strength  and  beauty  are  her  clothing 
and  she  shall  laugh  in  the  latter  day.  She  hath 
opened  her  mouth  to  wisdom,  and  the  law  of 
clemency  is  on  her  tongue.  .  .  .  Her  children 
rose  up,  and  called  her  blessed ;  her  husband,  and 
he  praised  her.  Many  daughters  have  gathered 
together  riches;  thou  hast  surpassed  them  all. 
>  Favor  is  deceitful,  and  beauty  is  vain;  the 
woman  that  feareth  the  Lord,  she  shall  be 
praised. 

.Were  I  to  attempt  an  historical  confirmation  of  my 
text;  this  lecture  would  develop  into  an  analysis  of  the 
lives  of  all  the  holy-women  of  the  Old  Testament,  to 
whom,  because  of  their  holiness  and  the  fortitude  and 
wisdom  that  comes  as  a  dowry  of  holiness,  were  com- 
mitted enterprises  of  great  peril  and  moment  ;  and  the 
rising  sun  would  find  you  tomorrow  sitting  here,  reading 
an  unfinished  story.  I  doubt  whether  your  patience 
would  stand  the  strain  of  listening  even  to  the  praises 
of  woman  for  so  long  a  time. 

,  Yet  it  would  be  pleasant  to  corroborate  the  words  of 
Ecclesiasticus  by  a  detailed  exposition  of  the  gentle 
Rachel's  story,  for  whom  Jacob  wisely  served  the  seven 
years  which  seemed  but  a  few  days,  because  of  the  great- 
ness of  his  love — Rachel  who  was  the  mother  of  Joseph, 
and  such  a  mother  she  must  have  been  to  have  moulded 
the  character  of  such  a  son. 

The  wise  Deborah,  to  whom,  seated  under  a  palm- 


16  "The  Heart  of  a  Holy  Woman" 

tree  between  Rama  and  Bethel  in  Mount  Ephraim,  the 
children  of  Israel  came  for  all  judgment.  When  Jabin, 
the  king  of  Chanaan,  sent  Sisara,  the  general  of  his 
army,  against  the  children  of  Israel,  it  was  Deborah's 
strong  wisdom  that  saved  them.  She  called  Barac,  the 
captain  of  the  forces  of  Israel,  and  ordered  him  to  go 
against  the  enemies  of  God  with  ten  thousand  fighting 
men;  and  when  that  valiant  hero  refused  to  go,  unless 
this  woman  would  go  with  him,  she  went  indeed,  but 
predicted  that,  because  of  the  cowardice  of  the  man,  the 
victory  would  not  be  attributed  to  him,  but  to  Jahel, 
Haber's  wife,  into  whose  merciless  hands  Sisara  would 
be  delivered. 

Strong  Judith  by  one  brave  deed  frustrated  the  rage 
of  the  Assyrian  King.  When  Holofernes  came  at  the 
command  of  Nabuchodonosor  to  punish  the  people  of 
Israel  for  refusing  to  recognize  his  sovereignty,  it  was 
not  through  the  instrumentality  of  the  captains  of  Israel, 
but  my  the  means  of  a  woman  armored  in  her  saintliness, 
and  following  the  inspiration  of  God  that  Israel  was 
saved  from  the  vengeance  of  brute  force.  While  the 
captains  of  Israel  were  cowering  in  fright  behind  their 
walls  in  the  presence  of  their  multitudinous  enemies ; 
while  all  the  people — the  old  men,  the  women,  the  young 
men  and  children — were  terror-stricken,  and  weeping  and 
in  lamentation ;  when  they  were  on  the  point  of  capitulat- 
ing to  the  enemy  of  God,  Judith  in  the  weakness  of  her 
womanhood  and  the  strength  of  her  saintliness  routed 
armies  that  had  met  no  obstacles  in  their  triumphant 
marches  over  the  ruins  of  nations. 

The  heroic  mother  of  the  Macchabees  (2  Mach.  vii, 
20,  21)  beheld  her  seven  sons  tortured  and  slain  in  one 


The  Heart  of  a  Holy  Woman 


17 


day,  and  "bore  it  with  good  courage  for.  the  hope  she 
had  in  God :  and  she  bravely  exhorted  every  one  of  them 
in  her  own  language,  being  filled  with  wisdom  and  join- 
ing a  man's  heart  to  a  woman's  thought."  When  the 
tyrant  Antiochus  brought  her  youngest  son — the  one  on 
whom  a  mother  seems  to  focus  the  concentrated  love  she 
might  have  shared  with  sons  that  were  never  born — and 
asked  her  to  counsel  the  boy  to  save  his  life  by  violat- 
ing the  Mosaic  law;  this  mother,  with  the  man's  heart 
and  woman's  thought,  bending  herself  towards  her  son, 
said : 

My  son,  have  pity  on  me  that  bore  thee  nine 
months  in  my  womb,  and  gave  thee  suck  three 
years  and  nourished  thee  and  brought  thee  into 
this  age.  I  beseech  thee,  my  son,  look  upon 
heaven  and  earth  and  all  that  is  in  them,  and 
consider  that  God  made  them  out  of  nothing,  and 
mankind  also.  So  thou  shalt  not  fear  this  tor- 
mentor; but  being  made  a  worthy  partner  with 
thy  brethren  receive  death,  that  in  that  mercy  I 
may  receive  thee  again  with  thy  brethren. 

She  accepted  a  second  widowhood,  the  widowhood  of 
childlessness,  which  every  widowed  mother  can  testify 
is  more  grevious  than  the  first.  The  commandments  of 
God  found  in  her  heart  "the  everlasting  foundations 
upon  a  solid  rock."  She  endured  seven  living  martyr- 
doms lest  any  of  her  sons,  as  might  have  happened  had 
they  not  been  supported  by  a  woman's  power,  should 
lack  the  courage  to  endure  one.  Many  a  mother  would 
sacrifice  her  life  for  her  sons ;  it  is  a  pure,  a  noble  and 
a  brave  mother  who  would  sacrifice  her  sons  for  God. 


18 


The  Heart  of  a  Holy  Woman 


The  Virgin  Mother 

But  it  was  the  advent  of  Christianity  that  brought 
woman  the  normal  opportunities  of  exercising  her 
powers.  Outside  of  or  beyond  Christianity  she  pros- 
pered as  a  rich  poisonous  flower,  retaining  her  attraction 
but  filling  the  atmosphere  with  the  deadly  aroma  of  sin. 
In  the  pagan  world  "between  the  servitude  and  blame- 
worthy empire  to  which  I  have  referred  there  was  no 
refuge  for  her  except  in  the  recesses  of  the  Temple  under 
the  veil  of  virginity;  among  the  priestesses  and  vestals." 
She  could  secure  her  womanhood  only  by  isolation  from 
society  and  the  loss  of  her  impress  on  the  broader  rela- 
tions of  men.  The  woman  was  saved  but  the  mother 
was  lost.  Among  the  Gentiles  some  traditional  memory 
may  have  partially  preserved  the  old  oracle  which  had 
announced  the  intervention  of  a  virgin  in  the  redemp- 
tion of  the  world;  but  lost  the  truth  that  this  virgin 
would  be  a  mother  also. 

When  the  prophecy  of  Isaias,  foretelling  that  a  virgin 
should  conceive,  and  bear  a  son,  was  verified,  the  whole 
human  race  was  rehabilitated ;  because  she,  whose  condi- 
tion is  the  gauge  and  measure  of  the  race's  rise  and  fall, 
was  elevated  to  the  highest  pinnacle  of  created  excellence; 
When  she  whom  we  call  the  Litany,  the  Morning  Star, 
first  appeared  as  a  herald  of  the  rising  Sun  of  Justice, 
there  was  realized  here  on  earth,  in  flesh  and  blood,  a 
living  ideal  of  womanhood— an  ideal  in  whom  was  found 
the  two  essential  elements  of  an  ideal :  first  an  exemplar 
or  pattern  of  perfection,  and  secondly,  a  beauty,  the 
magnetic  attraction  of  which  impels  almost  irresistibly 
to  effort  at  attainment.    Every  true  ideal  must  present 


"The  Heart  of  a  Holy  Woman"  19 

to  the  mind  a  perfection,  as  the  aim  of  endeavor,  and 
must  fire  the  heart  with  desire  for  attainment. 

That  ideal  of  womanhood  has  turned  the  stream  of 
centuries  out  of  the  channel  it  had!  occupied  for  four 
thousand  years ;  has  leavened  all  literature  with  purity  ; 
has  refined  arts  by  new  and  Divine  themes ;  and  has 
tended  to  make  laws  just,  and  government  humane,  and 
mariners  gentle.  Probably  in  nothing  more  strikingly 
than  in  art  has  the  change  wrought  by  that  ideal  been 
told.  What  is  the  ideal  of  pagan  art  in  its  highest 
phases? — The  physical  beauty  of  Venus,  the  Goddess  of 
Lust.'  What  is  the  ideal  of  Christian  Art?  The  purity 
of  the  Madonna,  the  spiritual  beauty  of  the  Mother  and 
the  Child.  You  have  the  whole  story  in  that*  contrast! 
Is  it  strange  then  that  this  ideal  of  womanhood,  this 
blessed  vision  of  virginal  purity  and  of  sweet  mother- 
hood has  not  only  changed  the  condition  of  woman,  but 
has  remade  her  standards,  her  aims,  her  aspirations;  has 
given  her  thoughts  the  breadth  of  heaven  and  depth  of 
its  blue  translucent  sky;  has  not  only  freed  her  from 
servitude  to  man ;  but  has  fundamentally  refashioned  all 
man's  convictions?  Is  it  strange  that  she  "our  tainted 
nature's  solitary  boast,"  the  highest  and  holiest  woman- 
hood should  have  been  so  mighty  an  influence,  though 
she  wrote  no  books,  made  no  discoveries  in  science, 
though  outside  of  one  short  poem  we  have  little  record 
of  what  she  said?  The  greatest  powers  for  the  good  of 
man,  it  has  been  said,  have  been  the  most  silent.  They 
have  produced  their  effects  by  the  strength  and  fitness 
of  their  resources.  "Forces  that  are  illimitable  in  the 
compass  of  their  effects  are  generally  obscure  and  un- 
traceable in  the  steps  of  their  movements.    For  instance 


20  "The  Heart  of  a  Holy  Woman'' 

what  eye  can  follow  the  increments  of  vegetable  growth, 
the  slow  upheaval  of  continents,  the  measured  progress 
of  the  sun  across  sky.  They  work  like  the  coming  of 
the  dawn.  Who  can  detect  the  separate  fluxions  of  its 
advance  ?"  Gravitation  again,  that  works  without  a 
holiday  forever  and  searches  every  corner  of  the  uni- 
verse, what  eye  can  follow  it  to  its  fountains?  And  yet 
stronger  and  more  elusive  than  gravitation,  more  sacred 
than  the  fluxions  of  the  shadow  on  a  sundial,  stealthier 
than  the  growth  of  a  forest  has  the  beauty,  the  nobil- 
ity, the  charm  and  the  holiness  of  the  peerless  Virgin 
Mother  worked  to  the  domestic,  social  and  religious 
elevation  of  woman  and  therefore  of  humanity.  By  the 
Divine  maternity  of  a  Virgin  was  woman  lifted  from  her 
especial  degradation  and  destined  to  become  the  latent 
force  giving  vitality  to  civilization.  In  her  degradation 
she  pulled  humanity  down,  in  her  elevation  she  lifted  it 
up. 

The  Christian  Woman 

Thereafter  society  felt  the  quickening  pulse  of  a 
new  life  and  the  home  took  on  a  new  character,  yielding 
to  the  gentle  but  potent  influence  of  the  holy  house  at 
Nazareth.  In  civil  life  woman  continued  it  is  true  out- 
side of  man's  sphere,  but  her  own  sphere  has  been  en- 
larged. She  does  not  actively  take  part  in  legislation, 
but  she  moulds  manners  which  are  of  greater  weight 
than  laws,  and  to  which  laws  owe  their  origin  and  ef- 
ficacy. She  holds  the  initiative  in  education  on  which 
the  future  of  any  society  depends.  Man  educates  the 
world,  but  woman  educates  man.  From  her  throne  be- 
side the  hearth  she  exercises  a  sway  over  the  present 


"The  Heart  of  a  Holy  Woman"  21 

citizens  and  forms  the  manhood  of  the  future  one.  Her 
ideals  rule  the  sacred  ministry  of  alms,  and  presides  over 
the  alleviation  of  suffering.  Her  homes  for  the  poor  and 
aged,  her  hospital  for  the  sick  and  diseased  have  estab- 
lished standards  of  social  activity  to  which  the  world 
attempts  to  conform.  Three  domains  of  human  life, 
childhood,  suffering  and  poverty,  that  is  to  say  the 
largest  part  of  humanity,  acknowledge  her  unquestioned 
ascendency  and  authority. 

Similar  changes  took  place  in  the  family  circle.  The 
home  became  the  dearest  and  most  sacred  thing  on  earth. 
The  slave  became  what  Genesis  tells  us  she  was  created 
to  be — a  helper,  a  councillor,  and  a  comforter.  The 
mother  sits  among  her  children,  the  queen  of  the  King- 
dom of  Home.  Under  her  gentle  rule  and  high  ideals 
the  boy  and  youth  and  maiden  grow  in  grace  as  well  as 
in  years.  Nor  is  her  influence  confined  to  the  family 
circle.  The  consciousness  that  they  could  not  look  un- 
abashed into  the  eyes  of  her  whom  they  reverence  more 
than  all  else  on  earth,  if  they  should  forget  abroad  the 
purity  of  home,  has  kept  many  a  boy  and  girl  from  dan- 
gerous paths.  The  ideal  wife  exercises  a  pious  aposto- 
late  in  regard  to  her  husband.  No  true  man  returns  at 
twilight  to  the  sanctity  of  a  home  over  which  a  true 
woman  presides,  without  departing  next  morning  with 
nobler  purposes.  His  return  thither  each  evening — like 
his  approach  at  stated  intervals  to  the  sacrament  of 
penance — prevents  him  from  falling  into  utter  material- 
ism. Sisters  are  guardian  angels  to  their  brothers  and 
idealizing  seraphs  to  their  fathers.  And  the  vestals  of 
paganism  have  been  transformed  into  the  spouses  of 
Christ. 


22  "The  Heart  of  a  Holy  Woman" 

One  may  say  that  henceforth  nothing  great  was  to 
be  accomplished  within  the  bosom  of  the  Church  with- 
out some  woman  participating  in  the  deed.    First  they 
stood  as  bravest  martyrs  in  the  amphitheatre,  they 
shared  with  the  anchorites  the  possession  of  the  desert, 
with  philosophers  the  defence  of  Christianity,  and  with 
missionaries  the  propagation  of  the  Faith.    St.  Cather- 
ine held  the  wisest  enthralled  by  the  wisdom  of  her  lec- 
tures in  the  school  of  Alexandria.    When  Constantine 
set  up  the  labarum  at  the  Capitol,  St.  Helena  planted 
the  cross  on  the  ruins  of  Jerusalem.  While  the  tears  and 
prayers  of  Monica  were  redeeming  the  soul  of  the  great 
Augustine,  Nonna  was  forming  the  young  heart  of 
Gregory  Nazianzen,  and  Jerome  was  supported  physi- 
cally and  spiritually  in  his  labor  of  translating  the  Vul- 
gate by  the  devotion  of  Paula  and  Eustochia.    St.  Basil 
and  St.  Benedict,  the  first  legislators  of  the  cenobitic  life 
in  the  West,  were  aided  by  their  sisters,  Macrina  and 
Scholastica.    St.  Clotilda  made  France  the  eldest  daugh- 
ter of  the  Church.    Bertha  the  great  granddaughter  of 
Clotilda  introduced  Christianity  into  the  pagan  court  of 
Canterbury  and  prepared  the  way  for  the  landing  of  St. 
Augustine  and  his  forty  missionaries  on  the  island.  Later 
the  Countess  Matilda  upholds  with  her  chaste  hands  the 
tottering  throne  of  Gregory  VI.;  the  wisdom  of  Queen 
Blanche  rules  throughout  the  reign  of  St.  Louis;  Joan 
of  Arc,  a  village  maiden,  leads  old  soldiers  to  battle  and 
saves  France;  Isabella  of  Castile  with  a  woman's  wis- 
dom discards  the  wisdom  of  learned  men  and  presides 
over  the  discovery  of  a  new  world.    In  times  nearer  to 
our  own  we  see  St.  Theresa  standing  amid  the  Doctors 
and  Bishops  of  the  Church  and  founders  of  religious 


The  Heart  of  a  Holy  Woman 


23 


orders  an  acknowledged  leader  of  that  revival  by  which 
the '  reformation  of  society  was  accomplished.  And 
if  we  turn  to  our  own  country  can  we  ever  forget  the 
saintly  story,  of  Mrs.  Seton,  to  whom  in  this  new  world 
Archbishop  Carroll  entrusted  the  task  which  St.  Vincent 
de  Paul  had  first  committed  to  Louise  de  Marillac,  of  en- 
riching the  Church  of  America  with  the  coronets  of 
Charity,  or  the  steadfast  endurance  of  the  gentle  Alice 
Lalor,  through  whose  noble  self-sacrifice  Archbishop 
Neale  transplanted  in  Georgetown  the  spirit  of  Madame 
de  Chantal;  or  the  heroic  courage  of  Mother  Julia,  who 
joining  a  man's  heart  to  a  woman's  thought,  has  laid  al- 
most within  the  shadow  of  *  the  Catholic  University  of 
your  Church  the  foundations  of  a  home  of  learning, 
wherein  Catholic  maidens  may  hereafter  drink  deep  from 
the  fountain  of  human  knowledge  unsullied  by  the  slime 
of  evil? 

But  the  fear  lest  I  trespass  too  far  on  your  kindness 
and  patient  attention  forbids  me  from  exposing  in  detail 
the  silent,  humble  and  unknown  heroism  of  that  vast 
multitude  of  Catholic  women  who  in  every  station  of 
life  and  unconsciously  and  almost  unnoted  working  for 
the  glory  of  God  and  His  Church.  It  would  be  pleasant 
if  time  permitted  to  tell  of  the  high  positions  held,  by 
woman  till  the  Reformation  in  Universities,  in  the  evan- 
gelical works  of  the  Church,  in  society  and  in  the  home, 
to  dwell  lovingly  on  her  influence  in  medieval  times, 
which  softened  and  refined  and  elevated  the  manners  and 
moderated  the  effervescence  of  wild  barbaric  blood  cours- 
ing through  the  veins  of  knight  and  soldier.  Has  woman 
ever  won  a  triumph  comparable  to  the  creation  of  me- 
dieval chivalry?    The  word  is  yet  found  in  our  vocabu- 


24  "The  Heart  of  a  Holy  Woman" 

laries,  but  "the  age  of  chivalry  is  gone."  It  vanished 
when  the  reformation  of  religion  began  in  Germany 
with  the  degradation  of  a  woman  consecrated  to  God 
and  in  England  by  the  degradation  of  a  wife.  To  quote 
Burke  again  but  with  a  qualification : 

Never,  never  more  [until  the  Catholic  Church 
with  its  reverence  for  the  Virgin  Mother  of  God 
shall  govern  men's  thoughts]  shall  we  behold  the 
generous  loyalty  to  rank  and  sex,  that  proud  sub- 
mission, that  dignified  obedience,  that  subordina- 
tion of  the  heart,  which  kept  alive,  even  in  servi- 
tude itself  the  spirit  of  an  exalted  freedom.  The 
unbought  grace  of  life,  the  cheap  defence  of  na- 
tion, the  nurse  of  manly  sentiment  and  heroic 
enterprise  is  gone.  It  is  gone,  that  sensibility  of 
principle,  that  chastity  of  honor,  which  felt  a 
stain  like  a  wound,  which  inspired  courage, 
whilst  it  mitigated  ferocity,  which  ennobled  all  it 
touched,  and  under  which  vice  itself  lost  half  its 
evil  by  losing  all  its  grossness. 

The  Source  of  Power 

To  what  shall  we  attribute  this  power  of  woman, 
where  shall  we  find  the  secret  of  her  influence? 

A  question  this  of  some  importance  today,  when 
woman  with  false  ideals  are  publicly  clamoring— a  most 
unwomanly  thing — for  broader  opportunities  and  wider 
spheres ;  and  mayhap  in  her  quest  for  these,  is  neglecting 
the  opportunities  that  are  hers  exclusively  and  is  endeav- 
oring to  escape  the  sphere  that  she  alone  can  fill,  which 
if  unfilled  tells  the  extinction  of  womanhood  and  an- 
nounces the  spectre  of  a  new  paganism  for  humanity. 
If  we  can  discover  the  hidden  springs  of  the  power 


"The  Heart  of  a  Holy  Woman"  25 

wielded  by  the  noblest  exemplars  of  womanhood,  we  in- 
ferentially  determine  the  sphere  in  which  she  may  attain 
her  proper  and  therefore  her  highest  development. 

Nor  need  we  institute  an  elaborate  psychological 
analysis  or  a  lengthened  historical  investigation  to  solve 
the  question.  Reverting  to  our  text,  we  shall  find  in  it 
an  answer  to  our  query  more  profound  than  that  afforded 
by  the  theories  of  any  philosophy.  Two  things  the  Son 
of  Sirach  intimates  will  give  stability  and  endurance  and 
perpetuity  to  the  race's  well-being :  The  heart  of  woman 
and  the  commandments  of  God.  Love  and  sanctity,  these 
two,  when  conjoined  have  been  and  are  the  upbuilders 
of  humanity. 

Mr.  Marion  Crawford  has  said :  "Men  have  stronger 
arms  and  heads  for  harder  work,  but  they  have  no  such 
hearts  as  women."  "And  the  world  has  been  led  by 
the  heart  in  all  the  ages."  It  is  very  true.  Mind  dis- 
covers the  goal  of  the  world's  endeavor,  discovers  too 
the  means  to  attain  it.  But  truth  never  appealed  to  any 
one  unless  invested  with  something  that  touched  the 
heart.  The  cold,  absolutely  demonstrated  truths  of 
mathematics  have  never  impelled  men  to  action.  Truth 
to  be  inspiring  must  stir  those  finer  emotions  which  we 
attribute  to  the  heart.  The  mind  lights  the  way,  but 
the  heart  is  the  motive  power.  Truth  is  the  central  sun 
around  which  the  planets  revolve,  but  love  is  the  moral 
gravitation,  the  strong  invisible  bond  that  keeps  them 
in  their  predestined  orbs  and  prevents  them  from  wan- 
dering darkly,  and  to  their  mutual  harm  through  the 
immeasurable  reaches  of  space.  Bare  truth  of  itself  has 
never  roused  an  emotion,  never  inspired  an  heroic  pur- 
pose, never  created  an  enthusiasm.   Unless  clothed  with 


26  "The  Heart  of  a  Holy  Woman 


beauty — which,  to  use  Plato's  definition,  is  "the  resplend- 
ence of  truth" — it  is  as  powerless  to  move  the  composite 
beings  that  constitute  humanity  to  great  deeds,  nay,  even 
to  little  deeds,  as  a  proposition  of  geometry.  Nor  is 
there  any  need  of  dwelling  on  the  fact  that  love  is  the 
motive  power  of  the  world,  for  even  those  who  would 
use  men  for  selfish  or  unholy  purposes  take  care  to  dis- 
cover what  will  secure  their  hearts. 

But  a  great  motive  power  is  capable  of  great  harm 
unless  directed  and  controlled.  It  may  be  abused,  de- 
graded and  perverted.  How  vast  may  be  its  agency  for 
evil  paganism  witnesses.  Mankind  driven  by  this  funda- 
mental power  of  nature  was  like  some  great  ocean  racer 
possessing  powerful  propellers  but  wanting  a  pilot.  With- 
out a  guiding  and  controlling  force  the  human  race  by 
the  very  strength  of  this  fundamental  power  was  driven 
into  the  soul  sea  of  paganism;  and  thereupon — 

On  that  hard  pagan  world  disgust 

And  secret  loathing  fell ; 
Deep  weariness  and  sated  lust 

Made  human  life  a  hell. 

Love  is  the  motive  power  by  which  humanity  is 
driven  across  the  ocean  of  time  towards  the  shores  of 
final  perfection :  but  to  reach  those  shores  it  must  have 
a  pilot  that  reads  in  the  commandments  of  God  the  bear- 
ings of  its  course.  That  pilot  is  holiness.  Holiness  and 
all  that  it  implies,  how  gracefully  it  becomes  a  woman. 
It  seems  to  be  her  especial  dowry.  How  pervasive  the 
influence  of  her  faith,  her  hope  and  her  charity.  How 
silently  and  unobtrusively  do  the  counsel  and  wisdom 
of  a  holy  woman  work;  how  effectively  the  courage,  the 


The  Heart  of  a  Holy  Woman 


27 


kindliness,  the  self-restraint,  the  patient  endurance,  the 
modesty,  the  truthfulness  and  purity  of  intention  pro- 
duce their  lasting  results !  How  incongruous,  grotesque 
and  disastrous  the  relations  existing  between  a  mother 
wanting  in  holiness  and  the  innocence  of  childhood !  How 
full  of  malign  results  for  a  son  or  daughter,  are  the 
years  they  have  spent  in  an  atmosphere  of  love  that 
had  worldliness,  vanity  and  unholiness  for  its  pilot; 
whose  young  minds  never  felt  the  fertilizing  warmth  of 
the  saintliness  of  a  holy  mother.  We  so  easily  forget 
that  the  children  of  today,  who  float  like  butterflies  with 
cheerful  joyousness  along  the  current  of  time,  will  be, 
when  we  shall  have  finished  our  course,  the  struggling 
humanity  of  tomorrow.  Will  their  future  activity  cause 
this  republic  to  decay  and  crumble,  to  cease  to  be  the 
last  realization  of  men's  hopes,  the  pride  of  good  men's 
hearts  and  the  ideal  of  just  men's  thoughts?  Go  ask  her 
to  whose,  care  has  been  committed  the  formation  of  those 
future  citizens.  Let  those  women  ask  themselves  who 
are  fostering  by  their  apathy  or  by  their  false  views  of 
life  two  evils  which  strike  at  the  root  of  society,  which 
frustrate  the  essential  functions  of  society,  they  who 
tolerate  the  divorce  courts,  they  who  laud  as  an  ideal  a 
schoolhouse,  college  or  university  which  they  have 
dubbed  non-sectarian,  in  order  if  possible  to  hide  behind 
a  hazy  word  of  fact  that  they  know  to  be  an  evil. 

The  newspapers  tell  us  daily  sad  tales  of  children 
being  carried  to  divorce  courts  in  order  to  bear  witness 
to  the  unexemplary  marital  relations  of  those  whom 
nature  intended  to  be  the  guides  of  their  unexperienced 
footsteps,  the  guardians  of  their  unsoiled  souls,  the 
models  of  their  young  activity.    Then  poor  human  jus- 


28  "The  Heart  of  a  Holy  Woman" 

tice  commits  to  the  care  of  one  or  other  of  those,  who 
could  not  take  care  of  themselves,  the  care  of  formation 
of  the  most  delicate  thing  that  God  has  created — the 
soul  of  a  child.  And  sometimes  the  actors  in  this  drama 
of  successive  polygamy  lose,  it  seems,  neither  social 
standing,  nor  repute  in  what  by  a  curious  figure  of 
speech,  is  called  good  society;  and  yet  good  society  is 
ruled  by  those  whose  hearts  were  made  to  be  everlasting 
foundations  for  the  commandments  of  God. 

Again,  a  Report  of  the  U.  S.  Commissioner  of  Educa- 
tion reveals  to  us  the  fact  that  those  institutions  for  the 
higher  education  of  young  men  and  young  women  are 
best  patronized,  which  do  not  pretend  to  exercise  more 
than  a  perfunctory  supervision  over  the  religious  and 
moral  development  of  their  wards ;  which  either  give  no 
formal  teaching  in  these  fundamental  requisites  of  edu- 
cation ;  or  make  them  elective  studies,  which  the  records 
of  some  of  these  institutions  show,  by  another  curious 
figure  of  speech,  to  be  a  term  synonymous  with  "ne- 
glected studies."  Now  the  Presidents  of  these  institu- 
tions are  primarily  business  men,  whose  purpose  is  to 
cater  to  the  taste  of  the  public.  How  long  therefore 
would  this  condition  of  affairs  last,  if  the  mothers  who 
had  guarded  their  boys  and  girls  in  righteousness  while 
at  home,  should  refuse  to  patronize  such  institutions? 
These  conditions  could  never  have  obtained,  if  she  to 
whom  the  virtue  of  her  daughter  and  the  true  manliness 
of  her  son  were  dearer  than  all  else,  had  kept  unshaken 
the  everlasting  foundations  of  God's  commandments,  if 
her  heart  had  been  wise,  unworldly,  and  virtuous. 

In  conclusion  therefore,  we  must  recognize  that  the 
power  of  woman  is  nearly  illimitable,  and  that  her  re- 


The  Heart  of  a  Holy  Woman 


29 


sponsibility  is  fearful.  It  is  no  mere  masculine  prejudice 
that  places  on  Eve  such  large  responsibility  for  our  ruin. 
She  the  helper,  not  fashioned  from  the  slime  of  the  earth, 
had  a  power  for  unknown  good  which  she  turned  to  evil. 
Boundless  therefore  is  woman's  power  for  good  or  evil, 
irresistible  is  her  influence,  appalling  is  her  responsibility. 
Whether  the  women  of  this  Republic  and  the  Catholic 
women  of  this  country  are  aware  of  this,  I  leave  to  you 
to  decide,  contenting  myself  with  remarking  that  no 
people  ever  truly  progressed  without  morals ;  that  morals 
are  the  work  of  woman ;  and  that  "as  everlasting  founda- 
tions upon  a  solid  rock  so  the  commandments  of  God  in 
the  heart  of  a  holy  woman." 


5 

Better  Men 


That  is  what  all  this  hue  and  cry  is  about  among  the 
Eugenists.  Fewer  men,  therefore,  better  men.  Is  that 
so?    And  what  is  right  and  what  is  wrong  here? 

Eugenics 

By 

William  I.  Lonergan,  S.J. 

This  is  a  straightforward,  frank  discussion  in  which 
a  spade  is  called  a  spade  and  the  sound  doctrine,  known 
from  philosophy  and  from  theology,  is  clearly  and  con- 
vincingly expounded. 


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The  Church  and  Politics 


Is  it  dangerous  to  have  a  Catholic  in  office?  Will  he 
be  dictated  to  by  the  Church?  Those  are  the  questions 
growing  more  rife  each  day.    Be  informed — read 

GOD  and  CAESAR 

Joseph  Husslein,  S  J. 

Here  are  the  questions  asked  and  answered — 
Is  the  Church  in  Politics ? 

What  Arc  the  True  Relations  of  Church  and  State ? 
Do  Catholics  Demand  Union  of  Church  and  State? 
llliat  Is  Meant  by  Union  of  Church  and  State ? 
Have  Catholics  a  Dual  Allegiance? 
J Jli at  Are  the  Political  Duties  of  Catholics? 
What  Are  Their  Duties  at  the  Ballot  Box? 

These  are  some  of  the  pertinent  questions  answered 
authoritatively  with  abundant  citations  from  Papal  Docu- 
ments, including  the  Encyclical  on  Christ  the  King. 

See  also  quotations  here  given  from  Washington, 
Lincoln,  Webster,  showing  their  attitude  towards  their 
Catholic  fellow-citizens. 

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